Heavy Crude Oil Tankers To Go Electric With Battery Pack Of Epic Size

It will get a 3,500 kWh battery.

Seven Japanese companies have formed the “e5 Consortium” with the goal of establishing new ocean shipping infrastructure services. Or more precisely, they will develop zero-emission, battery-electric vessels.

The “e5” is related to five core values: “electrification,” “environment,” “evolution,” “efficiency,” and “economics.”

The companies that stand behind e5 are:

The first major project is the world’s first battery-electric tankers – two units will be built by Asahi Tanker. Deployment is envisioned in March 2022.

It’s a sign of the time that heavy crude oil will be transported by all-electric tankers.

The vessel specifications include a battery pack of 3.5 MWh (equivalent to 35 100 kWh packs) and two 300 kW azimuth thrusters plus two 68 kW side thrusters.

（1）Dimension

LOA 62M / Beam 10.30M / Draft 4.15M

（2）Classification

NK

（3）Cargo

heavy oil

（4）Gross tonnage

Approx. 499 tons

（5）Speed

about 11 knots

（6）Tank capacity

about 1,300m3

（7）Propulsion device

Azimuth thruster 300kW x 2

（8）Side thrusters

68kW x 2

（9）Base battery capacity

3,500kWh

There is no word about the range, but at half power (300 kW), the batteries will last for about 10+ hours.

It’s great to see that the electrification of ships is expanding into new applications and that those are already fairly serious efforts.

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